Author: Chris Mahon
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 6: The Lotus Gambit
Welcome back to this series on immortality and perfection! If you haven’t read the previous articles, check them out below: Part 1: The Paradox of Perfection Part 2: Fractals & Infinity Part 3: Swordsmanship & Perfection Part 4: Alchemy & the Magnum Opus Part 5: The Horrors of Eternal Life In Part 5, we talked…
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Reading List: From Hell
When I first came across From Hell (by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell) in a bookstore, I took one look at the sketchy, back-of-a-napkin-sketch art, the spindly, difficult-to-read lettering, and the sheer thickness of the book and decided it was one of those weird, high-concept, avant-garde graphic novels that get lauded by critics and ignored…
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 5: The Horrors of Eternal Life
Welcome back to this series on immortality and perfection! If you haven’t read the previous articles, check them out below: Part 1: The Paradox of Perfection Part 2: Fractals & Infinity Part 3: Swordsmanship & Perfection Part 4: Alchemy & the Magnum Opus In Part 4, we conceptually linked the attainment of perfection to the…
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 4: Alchemy & the Magnum Opus
Welcome back to this article series on perfection and immortality! In Part 3, I talked about the link between swordsmanship, self-cultivation, and perfection, with a particular eye toward paradox. If you haven’t read Parts 1-3, click on the links below. Part 1: The Paradox of Perfection Part 2: Fractals & Infinity Part 3: Swordsmanship &…
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 3: Swordsmanship and Perfection
Welcome back to this article series on perfection and immortality! In Part 2, I talked a lot about fractals, repeating, self-similar patterns that have a complex relationship with perspective and infinity. I noted that the more one delves into fractals, the more often one encounters paradoxes, such as the Coastline Paradox. As you might remember…
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 2: Fractals and Infinity
In Part 1, I talked about the overlapping ideas of eternity, perfection, and immortality and the seeming paradox of making something perfect: “…making perfection a reality seems to evoke the mathematical concept of the asymptote— ‘a line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it.’ One can approach perfection, but the closer…
-
Meditations on Immortality, Part 1: The Paradox of Perfection
Immortality is a recurring thing in the fantasy genre—liches, elves, gods, and so on. I wanted to write down some of my thoughts on immortality, both in terms of fiction and more generally. It’s a fascinating topic, because it naturally intersects with so many other things—mathematics, metaphysics, and the limits of the human body and…
-
Building a Magic System: No-Eyes’ Necromancy
Recently, I started work on a new short story that deals with necromancy. It’s the first time in a while that I’ve had to flesh out the details of a magic system, and I wanted to share the thought process that went into it. Narrative & Inspirations First, I want to talk about the story,…
-
Occult Reading List: Vagabond & Berserk
This past June, I was at a panel discussion on fantasy literature and worldbuilding and was surprised when an audience member asked what the panelists thought about worldbuilding in manga series. In my experience, most people keep discussions of novels and manga separate, but it seems like the two mediums are overlapping more in people’s…
-
The Narrative and Worldbuilding of Bloodborne: Part 2
If you haven’t read Part 1 of my Bloodborne analysis, read it here. In it, I give an abridged summary of Bloodborne’s plot and take a closer look at the key elements of the narrative, including the Hunters and the Great Ones. To restate, much of this analysis is rooted in The Paleblood Hunt, but…
-
The Narrative and Worldbuilding of Bloodborne: Part 1
For most people, the narratives of FromSoftware’s games are (understandably) treated as kind of a joke. I don’t think anyone denies that an incredible amount of time and care is put into building these stories, but when unearthing them involves deciphering the purposely cryptic description text of a necklace hidden in some god-forsaken niche in…
-
Occult Reading List: Taschen’s “H.R. Giger”
Recently, I’ve been reading Taschen’s H.R. Giger, and I’ve really been enjoying it! I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on it, as a writer and worldbuilder. My first encounter with H.R. Giger came in high school, when my friend Joel (the same person that created the artwork of body modification styles in the…
-
What Is “Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim”?
If you’re new to the world of OROBORO and the Occult Triangle Lab, you’re probably thinking something like: Dark fantasy—cool. Body horror—cool. Worldbuilding—cool. What’s all this about a dating sim? Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim was one of the Lab’s first major projects (and our first successful Kickstarter). It’s a psychological horror dating sim,…
-
The Lab Reawakens
For two years, the Lab has been asleep, dreaming. Now, it’s awake again. New stories are being written, new art crafted, and more. What is the Occult Triangle Lab? The Occult Triangle Lab is a home for fiction and multimedia projects that center on the world of OROBORO, a dark fantasy setting created by Christopher…
-
Black Heaven Has Been Released to Kickstarter Backers!
THE RITUAL IS COMPLETE! Black Heaven is finished and released to backers! Thanks to our 300+ backers and over $13,000 raised, we have brought this project to life! Right now, the plan is to keep the game exclusive to Kickstarter backers for about 3 months, then release the game on Steam and Itch.io. Keep your eyes…
-
“Black Heaven” Has Almost Finished Development!
After almost two years of development, Black Heaven is nearly ready for release to Kickstarter backers! Here’s a summary of what’s coming: The game has reached almost 400,000 words (including the separate romance routes), which is more than the combined wordcount of Fellowship of the Ring and Dune! Linnea Kataja has created dozens of beautiful…
-
We’re Launching A Kickstarter for “Black Heaven”!
The official launch date is set for April 30th, 2021! You can see the full announcement on Itch! Here’s an excerpt: “When I started work on Black Heaven, a game about romancing ghosts in the aftermath of an apocalyptic plague, I didn’t expect a real-life pandemic to spread across the world. Now, the themes of…
-
The Demo For Black Heaven Is DONE!
After eight months of work, including creating a Game Design Doc, learning Ren’Py, writing the opening 20 minutes of the game, and finding artists…the demo for Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim is done. I’ve gotten almost universally positive responses for the Beta version of the demo, and now I’m super excited to send it…
-
Black Heaven Vision Board
To help aid in art design for the game, I created some Pinterest boards for characters and costumes!
-
New Plans for “Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim”!
Big announcement: I’m planning on turning “Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim” into a full-length, commercial visual novel! Though the project likely won’t kick into gear until Fall 2020, I’m laying the groundwork for the game now, including 1) an early version of the demo with placeholders, 2) marketing plans, and 3) an outline for…
-
Making ‘Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim’, Part 2: Narrative
Welcome back to my ongoing series of posts on my game demo project “Black Heaven: a Necromantic Dating Sim”! If you haven’t read part Part 1, go read that first, you animal. This time, I’m talking about narrative—outlining the story, figuring out the characters, and writing the opening scene. Because Black Heaven is just a demo at this stage, there…
-
Making ‘Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim’, Part 1: Concept
I haven’t finished a novel in at least two years. It’s a pretty shameful thing for someone with a degree in Creative Writing. It’s even more shameful for someone who originally wanted to work in book publishing. Instead, I’ve been playing games like Doki Doki Literature Club, Katawa Shoujo, VA-11 Hall A, and Mass Effect (among others). I’ve…
-
Protected: Unperson Graphics/Assests from 0ldN0Eyes
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
-
“The Crownless King,” “Old No-Eyes,” and a New Review!
Announcements! First, the final chapter of “The Crownless King” (Part 4) is up on The Fantasy Hive, marking one of the darkest and most heart-wrenching endings to a story I’ve written in years. Second, “Old No-Eyes” is up on Beneath Ceaseless Skies and it’s received its first review from Charles Payseur, an SFF reviewer and blogger,…
-
“Old No-Eyes” Will Be Published by Beneath Ceaseless Skies on August 2nd!
After submitting “Old No-Eyes” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies way back in April 2017, it’s finally being published in two weeks! Thanks to Scott Andrews, the editor at BCS, “Old No-Eyes” ended up becoming even better over the course of a few months of edits (and a lot of emails back and forth). With “Hypnotica” and “The Crownless King”…
-
Doki Doki Literature Club and the Abyss
This past month, I interviewed for a job at a game company and had a gushing, energetic conversation with four staff members about how much we all loved the game Doki Doki Literature Club, a Japanese dating sim that’s taken the internet (and numerous awards) by storm. Soon after, however, I had a long Skype…
-
Highlights from GIFCON 2017 and my trip to Scotland!
Hey, so you probably heard I was asked to speak at the Glasgow International Fantasy Conference on my 2015 project, The Rats in the Walls. The talk went great, and I’ll be publishing the full text soon, but in the meantime I wanted to give some of the high points of the trip. First off,…
-
I’m Going to GIFCON This Week!
After a month of preparing, I’m heading to Scotland on Monday to speak at the Glasgow International Fantasy Convention on my Rats in the Walls project! You can check out the details of the project here, and read an excerpt from my speech here. You can also check out the promo video Alex Sherman and…
-
New Essay in Clarkesworld Magazine: “Frodo is Dead: Worldbuilding and The Science of Magic”
I’ve said this before: magic should not be science. Magic can be systematic and internally consistent, but it shouldn’t be reduced to a human tool, like astronomy or chemistry. A lot of writers and worldbuilders don’t seem to understand the difference–didn’t Arthur C. Clarke famously say that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?” But there is a…
-
I’m Going to Be a Speaker at Glasgow International Fantasy Convention!
Last month I saw a post on the SFWA website calling for papers and presentations for GIFCON, the Glasgow International Fantasy Convention, and decided to submit a presentation on my Rats in the Walls project. Now, I found out I’ve been accepted–I’m going to Scotland to be a speaker at the con (March 29th-30th)! “The…
-
Five Years Worth of Sketches: Ritual Magic, Death Masks, and Helmets
This weekend I finally started digging into about 5 years worth of sketches and thumbnails doodled in the margins of my school notes. The majority of the sketches are for helmets, masks, and faces, but there are some symbols and ritual magic designs. Most of the helmets on the left are meant for Redcaps, which are elves…
-
New Books! Wabi-Sabi and Tibetan Buddhism
So I swung by the Spoonbill & Sugartown Bookstore in Brooklyn today while running errands and some cool books. The bookstore itself was fascinating and had a lot of cool, eclectic titles, including the Atlas Obscura and the new Non-Stop Metropolitan. There was a surprising amount of stuff on magic and mysticism, which caught my…
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Reading List Vol 4: The Mind of a Psychopath
This is Vol. 4 of the Occult Reading List, where I collect all the interesting stories and strange pieces of trivia I’ve picked up over the past week from books, articles, and webpages. Also included are the songs that have been on repeat for me this week. Guaranteed to make you more interesting at parties.…
-
“Secrets” by Joel Clapp
Hey, so I just bought a 12×16 piece of art from my friend Joel Clapp, titled “Secrets.” Joel has done some concept art for my stories, including the Grinning Man helmet, the sketches of Oroboro and his scary-ass smile, and the city of Ibiza, from “Hypnotica.” Here’s what he has to say about the piece:…
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Review: Ubik by Phillip K. Dick
I first heard about this book when reading through Philip K. Dick’s biography, I Am Alive and You Are Dead, which took its title from one of the more chilling lines in Ubik. It seemed to have everything I could ever want: existential crises, meditations on eternity, entropy, and the human spirit, and a mind-bending journey through an illusory…
-
THE OCCULT READING LIST VOL. 3: Three Body Problem, Language as Magic, and New Retro Wave
This is Vol. 3 of the Occult Reading list, where I collect all the interesting stories and strange pieces of trivia I’ve picked up over the past week from books, articles, and webpages. Also included are the songs that have been on repeat for me this week. Guaranteed to make you more interesting at parties. Disclaimer: There’s…
-
The Occult Reading List Vol. 2: Quantum Computing, Alchemy, and Cicada 3301
This is Vol. 2 of the Occult Reading list, where I collect all the interesting stories and strange pieces of trivia I’ve picked up over the past week from books, articles, and webpages. Also included are the songs that have been on repeat for me this week. Guaranteed to make you more interesting at parties.…
-
Oroboro Sketches: Apollonian Gasket Eyes
Sketches of fractal Apollonian gaskets contained in eyes, with the title “OROBORO” overhead. I’ve been fascinated with fractals for the past couple years, especially how they relate to infinity, symmetry, and the bounds of mathematics. You can read more about how fractals factor into my fantasy world and writing here.
-
The Occult Reading List: Zen, Martial Arts, Annie Lennox, and Tickets to the Moon
I have a bad habit of reading, listening, and watching too many things at once, and at the end of every week I end up with a new list of fascinating things to check out. I thought it would be fun to share some of the stuff I’ve read and listened to in the past week, including…
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Review: I Am Alive and You Are Dead by Emmanuel Carrere
This past week I finished I Am Alive and You Are Dead, a biography of Philip K. Dick, the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (the inspiration for Blade Runner) and The Man in the High Castle. Dick won the Hugo Award in 1963, and ended up being the namesake of his own sci-fi award. I’d read Do Androids years…
-
Hypnotica: New Short Story and Sketches from Joel Clapp
9 months after its inception, my new short story, Hypnotica, is out for submission to fantasy magazines! If you want to learn more about the inspiration behind it and how I fleshed out the magic system in the story, you should check out the posts DREAMWAVE: FANTASY WRITING, QUANTUM THEORY, AND DAFT PUNK and NARCOMANCY: MORPHINE, LUCID DREAMING, AND…
-
My New Essay in Clarkesworld Magazine: Paradise Lost
Yesterday my new essay, Paradise Lost: A History of Fantasy and the Otherworld, was published online in the July Issue of the Hugo Award-winning Clarkesworld Magazine! This marks the culmination of a conversation that started four or five years ago, when I was standing in my driveway at night with my friend Joel Clapp. We had just finished…
-
ERGODICA, Part 2: Interdimensional Necromantic Blues
New, from Chris Mahon’s Occult Triangle Lab: interconnections between Kierkegaard’s existentialism, Buddhism, immortality, Kabbalah, fractals, Godel’s Incompleteness theorem, and a piece of experimental literature about an interdimensional necromancer trapped between two infinities.
-
Ergodica: House of Leaves, Puzzle Boxes, and Experimental Literature
Like a clock tower sniper, you study House of Leaves, but you don’t copy it.
-
The Crownless King
Headless gods, self-surgery, and living forever: an excerpt and some sketches on a necromantic theme, ‘the crownless king.’
-
Worldbuilding: Morrowind and Vvardenfell
No one liked Cliff Racers, but Vvardenfell was one the greatest fantasy worlds ever built.
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Review: The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
The Eye of the World had 270 pages to give me a reason to keep reading. It failed.
-
The Occult Triangle Lab Review: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The Occult Triangle reviews the cryptographical masterpiece by Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon.
-
Narcomancy: Morphine, Lucid Dreaming, and Binaural Beats
Serial Experiments Lain meets Neuromancer and Inception.
-
Dreamwave: Fantasy Writing, Quantum Theory, and Daft Punk
Bringing together brain waves, four-on-the-floor beats, and de Broglie waves.
-
High Resolution: Worldbuilding and the Small Details
I have a fascination with the metal buttons on pay phones, the pixels on old Zenith televisions, the writing on IV drip bags, and the lettering on manhole covers.
-
Worldbuilding: True Names, Binary, and Mathematics as Magic
Fleshing out my magic system takes me on a journey through binary, computer coding, and metaphysics.
-
Don Quixote and Evan Puschak’s “Middle Earth and the Perils of Worldbuilding”
The Occult Triangle Lab responds to The Nerd Writer’s video criticizing fantasy worldbuilding.
-
The Rats in the Walls: New Date
The Rats in the Walls has been rescheduled for May 24th, 10 AM. Follow the hashtag #ghosttrain and subscribe to the Rats at @kilroyisgod to watch the conspiracy unfold.
-
THE RATS IN THE WALLS BEGINS MAY 10TH
“The Rats in the Walls” is a city-wide conspiracy led by the eponymous graffiti crew and its masked spokesman, Kilroy. Since March, chalk summoning circles, origami lotuses, and Kilroy himself have appeared on the streets of Manhattan, hinting at what was to come. Now, on Sunday, May 10th at 10 AM, something will unfold across New…
-
The Rats in the Walls: Word is Spreading.
Word of the Rats in the Walls is spreading–read two of the new photo essays about Kilroy, the Rats, and their ever-deepening conspiracy.
-
Rats in the Walls: Lotus Scavenger Hunt
Starting today, you can find black origami lotuses scattered around the East Village, accompanied by WANTED posters of Kilroy, spokesman for the Rats in the Walls.
-
Rats in the Walls: New Summoning Circles and Wanted Poster
The Rats in the Walls keeps rolling with new summoning circles and posters of the infamous Kilroy.
-
The Worm Ouroboros, The Rats in the Walls, Kilroyisgod
The Lovecraft-inspired Twitter piece “The Rats in the Walls” has made it to the second round of judging for the Twitter Fiction Festival.
-
Kilroy Sightings
This May, “The Rats in the Walls,” a Lovecraft-inspired piece of Twitter fiction, will debut as part of the Twitter Fiction Festival. Once it begins, it will not stop. Watch the Rats come out of the woodwork. This April, report any sightings of the man pictured below to the handle @kilroyisgod, with the hashtag #ratsinthewalls. …
-
The Rats in the Walls: Preview Pt. 2
“And, most vivid of all, there was the dramatic epic of the rats – the scampering army of obscene vermin which had burst forth from the castle three months after the tragedy that doomed it to desertion – the lean, filthy, ravenous army which had swept all before it and devoured fowl, cats, dogs, hogs,…
-
The Rats in the Walls: Previews
“Trains are disappearing, time is unraveling, rats are coming out of the woodwork, and we do some of that old black magic.” THE RATS IN THE WALLS, a piece of Lovecraftian Twitter fiction coming this May. Click the circular button button below to Share.
-
“The Rats in the Walls”: Lovecraftian Twitter Fiction
“An occult graffiti crew called the Rat Pack has stolen four NY subway trains. Their spokesman, the bizarre, lyrical, and masked ‘Kilroy,’ is now taunting the police and the MTA, spouting cryptic manifestos and posting strange photos. Readers are ‘recruited’ by the MTA and NYPD to unravel Kilroy’s messages and learn the origins of the…